Calcutta HC puts Kolkata civic polls on hold over ward delimitation row

• High court restrains SEC from issuing KMC poll notification pending decision on ward delimitation.

• Petition questions administrator's authority and proposed expansion of wards from 144 to 209.

• Publication of final electoral rolls for seven municipalities, including Kolkata, remains delayed.

The Calcutta High Court has restrained the West Bengal State Election Commission (SEC) from issuing any election notification for the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) until a pending legal challenge to the redrawing of municipal ward boundaries is decided. The interim order is likely to delay the civic elections in Kolkata, with uncertainty also surrounding the municipal polls in Howrah.

The order was passed on Friday, 6 November by a vacation division bench comprising Justices Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya and Arjun Roy Mukherjee. The bench clarified that the single bench hearing the main petition would first determine whether the ward delimitation process had been carried out in accordance with the law.

The division bench partially allowed an appeal filed by Dipu Das, a CPI(M) leader and former councillor from Kasba, who had challenged the proposed increase in the number of KMC wards from 144 to 209.

The controversy began after the state government initiated the process of reorganising municipal wards. Several political parties, including the Left, the Congress and a faction of the Trinamool Congress associated with Mamata Banerjee, questioned the procedure, alleging serious irregularities in the delimitation exercise.

Das subsequently moved a petition before Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya. The single bench declined to grant an interim stay but sought affidavits from both sides. Dissatisfied with the decision, the petitioners approached the division bench.

A key issue before the court is whether KMC administrator Smita Pandey had the authority to take decisions concerning ward delimitation. The petitioners argued that her responsibilities were limited to administration and did not extend to exercising powers reserved for an elected municipal corporation, particularly on policy matters. They also questioned her authority to independently communicate decisions on ward delimitation to the SEC in the absence of an elected municipal council.

The division bench observed that the delimitation process required the involvement of the Kolkata municipal commissioner. However, with the corporation currently being run by an administrator, questions have arisen over the legal authority under which the exercise was undertaken.

The division bench left the substantive question of whether the delimitation was legally valid to the single bench hearing the main petition.

Opposing the appeal, state advocate-general Surajit Nath Mitra argued that the government had followed the prescribed procedure. He submitted that a draft proposal for increasing the number of wards had been published and objections and suggestions invited from the public.

According to Mitra, no objections were received during that stage. The state government and the KMC also defended the exercise, arguing that the absence of an elected municipal body had to be taken into consideration.

The petitioners, however, alleged that the exercise was arbitrary and questioned the use of electoral rolls, rather than population figures, as the basis for reorganising the wards.

The court's intervention has also cast uncertainty over the election schedule. The SEC had earlier announced that publication of the final electoral rolls for seven municipalities, including Kolkata, would be postponed from the scheduled date of 12 November. A revised date is yet to be announced.

The SEC is understood to be awaiting the court's clearance before finalising the electoral rolls and announcing the election schedule. Under the applicable rules, changes to electoral rolls are restricted once an election notification is issued.

The KMC's elected body completed its term in June, following which the corporation was placed under an administrator. The proposed increase in wards was presented by the new BJP government as a measure to improve civic administration and service delivery.